


12:26 am

by ImaginationWell



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, also me: ignores the 12 multichap wips i have sitting in my drive, me: shows up 10 years later with this and starbucks, post trk, this is just fluff im so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 14:11:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13742634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaginationWell/pseuds/ImaginationWell
Summary: adam thinks about a lot of things. ronan makes sure he doesn't have to.or: adam goes to uni and ronan is always there.





	12:26 am

“You’re an idiot,” Adam says, staring at his boyfriend - _his boyfriend_ \- sprawled in the middle of a parking lot at 12:26 am, a shopping cart on his stomach and street lights on his face. From his spot on the road, Ronan wedges his arm out from under a wheel and thrusts his middle finger up at Adam.

“Creative,” Adam drones.

“Fuck you.”

“Even better.”

“Help me up, you shit,” Ronan yells, and at exactly 12:26 am, Sunday night (Monday morning), Adam starts laughing so hard he joins his boyfriend - _boyfriend_ \- on the road, threads their fingers together, kisses his ears, and stares up at the stars.

They lie like that for a while, the Henrietta wildlife (read: too many cicadas and too many crickets) buzzing a harmony in their ears while the sky painted a picture for their eyes.

“Uh, babe,” Ronan says, finally, “I’m kind of losing feeling in my left arm.”

Adam hums in acknowledgment, and they lay there for a little while more.

“I think I’m going to have to get amputated--”

“Will you visit me?” Adam interrupts. His mind is in a faraway place, in the back of a college dorm, in the armchair of a common room, in a lecture hall, on an open campus. In a bed, without Ronan. In a shower, without Ronan.

Ronan shoves the shopping cart off and turns towards him, the road grating his arm, and Adam thinks about the way Ronan would have lost his arm if it meant staying by his side.

“I’d visit you in the middle of the goddamn night if you asked me to,” and Adam thinks about the way Ronan had never been this honest with himself before.

“Would you come sit next to me in the middle of a lecture?” Adam asks, grinning at Ronan’s face, “If I asked you to?”

Ronan stares, and maybe the stars above him and the gravel below him and Adam next to him were getting to his head, because he says, “Yeah. Anything for you.”

And then he realizes he has a reputation to keep because he adds, “shitface.”

And Adam thinks about the way he finally understood what love meant.

 

* * *

 

Adam’s stuff fits into one suitcase. It was the same one Adam had used to pack his stuff from the trailer to the church, and now it was the same one he was using to pack his stuff from the church to uni. Adam thinks that he’ll donate it and buy a new one later. Ronan offers to burn it.

They stand, staring at the once-again empty apartment, if it could be called that, and Adam thinks he feels a little nostalgic leaving it behind. But then he looks at Ronan and all he can think about is his future and his boyfriend - _boyfriend_.

And they turn around and don’t look back.

 

* * *

 

Gansey, Blue, and Henry are in the car too, and it feels like old times, even though they’re headed to an airport and three-fifths of the car passengers are going to Venezuela, a development Adam hadn’t been aware of until two nights ago.

 

 _“Yeah, so Blue, Henry and I’ll just tag along and say bye to you at the airport, really, it’s hitting two birds with one stone.”_  
_“...What’s the second bird?”_ _  
_ _“We’re going to Venezuela?”_

_“...What the fuck.”_

 

The windows are rolled down and Ronan is playing absolute shit music that threatens to tear the car apart and there’s sweat already pasting Adam’s hair to the nape of his neck and Blue and Henry are arguing about yogurt in the backseat - _“What’s the point if you don’t eat the fruit? Just eat plain yogurt?” “Your privileged ass wouldn’t understand” “But plain yogurt is cheaper??”_ \- and it’s perfect, Adam thinks.

 

* * *

 

The Venezuela trio and Ronan and Adam have to go to different terminals, it turns out, for domestic and international flights, so they say their heartfelt goodbyes in the car, and there’s a shininess in Gansey’s eyes and a watery smile on Blue’s face and actual tears on Henry’s cheek - _“Why the fuck are you crying, Cheng?” “Not all of us are as emotionally constipated as you are, Lynch”_ \- and then suddenly Adam and Ronan are sitting in gate 27C, waiting for the arrival of his flight.

Adam’s leg keeps jumping up and down and there are butterflies eating his stomach, but Ronan takes his head in his hand and puts his lips on his and Adam feels like he can do anything.

“You can do this,” he whispers against his lips, thumb stroking Adam’s cheekbone, and Adam feels a weight lifted off his chest because he knows he isn’t lying when he says, “I know.” Ronan grins and bites Adam’s lip, because _“you’re fucking hot when you aren’t drowning in self-loathing.”_

Adam refuses to cuddle with him the entire flight.

 

* * *

 

The weather is awful when they land. It starts raining almost immediately after they get out of the airport, raindrops splattering the cement sidewalk, quickly turning into a heavy downpour. Ronan creatively curses out the“fucking asshole universe.” Adam is grateful they didn’t get knocked out of the sky by a bolt of lightning.

They call a taxi, and Adam stares at the tall buildings and the men in suits and women with briefcases, until they reach the university district and college students getting soaked in the rain, using their book bags as umbrellas. It might be his new surroundings, but it’s probably Ronan’s hand gripping Adams’, because all his nerves are gone and all Adam feels is relief.

_I’ve made it._

As if hearing his thoughts - or maybe he said then it loud - Ronan leans over and kisses Adam, slow and soft, and Adam forgets about everything except the feel of Ronan’s buzz cut under his fingers and the taste of his skin.

 

* * *

 

His university - _his_ \- is prestigious and the students are pretentious, but it’s also open and warm and comforting, like everything Aglionby could’ve been but never had the guts to be.

They trudge up the stairs to Adam’s second floor dorm, and, really, he’s not sure what he’s expecting but it’s not _this_ \- his roommate, presumably, hopefully, sprawled on the couch, and empty bowl of popcorn next to him and a PS4 controller in his hand, yelling at the Princess Daisy on the screen to _go faster, dammit_ ; it’s so stereotypical Adam has to take a moment to bask in the glory of it all.

“Oh, hey,” his roommate says, pausing the screen and jumping up from the couch, “I’m James. You must be Adam?”

Adam smiles and reaches out to shake his hand. “Yeah. Nice to meet you. Um, this is my boyfriend, Ronan.”

Adam would’ve liked to say that Ronan did not intimidate his roommate into buying them both pizza, but there some things in life that you can’t have and that is exactly what happened.

 

* * *

 

Ronan stays with him for a few days, exploring the city. It’s different from Henrietta; the people are nicer and the buildings are closer. There’s no magic or ley line or Cabeswater, but Adam thinks there’s magic in the way strangers smile at each other while walking down the street, in the way that when they hold hands, no one gives them side eyes or dirty looks.

Day one: Ronan drags him to the nearest warehouse and buys him every type of houseplant he can find.

Day two: Ronan drags him to every pizza parlor in the area to find him “a Nino’s replacement for pizza runs at 2 am.”

Day three: Ronan drags him to bed and they’re a mess of legs and arms, the setting sun making a halo out of Adam’s hair. There are too many plants shoved into every available space, and Ronan has to leave in two hours.

“Don’t forget about me,” Adam whispers.

“I couldn’t if I tried.”

 

* * *

 

Three months later, at 12:26 am, the doorbell rings. Adam, in one swift motion, takes a sip of his coffee and curses every god he can think of. He wishes he could say that he grew out of his bad habits- he doesn’t need to stay up all night to study because he was working the whole day. He has free time now, which is bizarre to him, and he got here on a full-ride. But old habits die hard, and at this point it feels weird not to do homework at death o’clock surrounded by the scent of espresso and the night sky.

He trudges to the door, opens it, looks the perpetrator straight in the eye, and shuts it in his face. Ronan Lynch, standing on the other side of the door with a goddamn bouquet of flowers, feels just a little out of his element. Two and a half seconds later, the door opens again and Adam is jumping into his arms and the flowers are dropping to the floor and they’re kissing but not quite because their smiles are too wide; doors start to open at the commotion, but Ronan walks them inside, shuts the door, and kisses him until they’re a tangle of limbs and lips and blond hair and tattooed skin. And Adam thinks about the way the both of them finally understand what happiness is.

  


**Author's Note:**

> lmao this is a self-indulgent shit thing i wrote in the car last night instead of studying because? i dont know. inspired by that tumblr post where ronan visits adam in the middle of the night with coffee and kisses.


End file.
